How a Sydney to Hobart crew survives the voyage

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12/19/2018

For $5 million, you can get a lot of yacht: spa baths, sundecks, plush double beds, deluxe kitchens and even TV rooms are offered on luxury yachts around that price.

Or, if you are John Winning jnr, you could charter a yacht worth about that much, trading the luxury for a lightweight carbon fibre hull and a toilet that the crew "tries not to use" because it does not even have a door, and race it for two days in the Sydney to Hobart.

Gone with the wind: John Winning Jr sits atop a pile of spare sails at the front of his Sydney to Hobart yacht. Credit:Nick Moir

In place of proper beds, yachts like Winning jnr's Winning Appliances have stacked bunks where sailors sleep cheek by jowl at extreme angles so they are not flung out when the boat hits a wave.

So it is no surpirse that at the end of a 24-hour practice sail on Wednesday, Winning admitted that he was "pretty close to collapsing".

"It's like a bucking bull," he said. "You're slamming into waves. All of a sudden you end up halfway into the bunk in front because you're asleep and you hit a wave and you fire forward."

Winning estimates that he will get between two and four hours of sleep a night when the Sydney to Hobart gets underway.

It is no better on deck, where the crashing waves can be like having a fire hose sprayed in your face for hours on end, Winning said.

One answer to sailing's mental challenges is sugar. Stashed on the side of the boat is a pile of racing essentials: a pile of Gatorade, Pepsi and Solo.

"We're pretty good at drinking the water over the sugar, but not always," Winning said. "That's if you're in the middle of a watch and you need to some sugar to get you through the next hour or two."

Another is family. Winning jnr is sailing with his father, John Winning snr, in honour of the six sailors who lost their lives in the tragic 1998 Sydney to Hobart, when a severe storm hit the fleet in Bass Strait.

"It's really just something that Dad and I wanted to do personally to mark it," Winning said.

Most of the crew of Winning Appliances ahead of the 2018 Sydney to Hobart.Credit:Nick Moir

Winning snr has completed 10 Sydney to Hobarts, but none since the disaster two decades ago.

"I figured, Dad's not getting any younger. So if I was ever going to do it with him, we've had a pretty good year of hanging out together," Winning jnr said.

But in the cramped confines of a racing yacht, tempers can fray.

"I think 10 years ago if someone had said 'do you want to do the Hobart with your dad', I would've said 'no, bugger that'," Winning jnr said. "We'd kill each other [with a round the world race]."

"As you get older and more mature, you appreciate time with your parents more," Winning said, adding that his father is "also getting more relaxed in his old age".

Most of the crew are old friends of Winning's, but one name stands out: champion surfer John John Florence.

The Hawaiian surfing pro, who ended his 2018 World Surf League campaign early due to injury, snagged the last spot on Winning Appliances after he was introduced to Winning by a friend after the America's Cup.